"A Sergeant of the Law, wise, wary, _arch_!
_Who oft had gossip'd long in the church porch._"
The word "arch" is here interpolated to give some colour to the charge
of "gossiping," absurdly asserted of the learned Sergeant. The Parvis
was the place of conference, where suitors met with their counsel and
legal advisers; and Chaucer merely intimates thereby the extent of the
Sergeant's practice. In Chaucer we have--
"In termès hadde he cas and domès alle
That fro the time of _King Will._ weren falle."
Who does not see the propriety of the customary contraction, _King
Will._? Mr Horne does not; and substitutes, "since King William's
reign."